Grim Sleeper Suspect.Paid $300,000 from City Pension Fund and Will Get $1,658 Monthly on Death Row if Convicted
Chistrine Pelisek in the LA Weekly continues her great coverage of the Grim Sleeper case, exposing suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr. has been on disability as a city garbageman for years, grossing $300,000 while the serial killings have gone on. 
It doesn’t stop there. Even if convicted, he will keep on getting monthly checks now at $1,658.54 with annual increases for inflation.
“You need contributions from four city workers to pay this son of a
bitch’s disability payments! It doesn’t sound to me that they have a
good mechanism in place to prevent fraud,” said commuity leader Jack Humphreville.
Forget the Bell Scandal — It Was Always Vernon That Broke All the Rules with a $1 Million Official
Back in 1989, the LA Times exposed Vernon City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst’s outrageous salary of $162,804 — twice Gov. George Deukmejian’s — to run the small industrial town like a fiefdom.
Today, 21 years later, the Times revisits Vernon and finds salaries are even higher than Bell’s with Eric T. Fresch being paid nearly $1.65 million in salary and hourly billings and other officials similarly off the charts.
Among Fresch’s duties were energy issues, which presumably makes him the point man for the dirty deal Antonio’s pal and fund-raiser Ari Swiller pulled off with the CIM Group to buy land for a massive wind farm in Kern County out from under the DWP and sell Vernon part of the Onyx Ranch property for $65 million — 50 percent more than he paid for the whole thing.
The Stench of City Budget Cuts — LAFD Closing Down Only HazMat Team in San Fernando Valley
The Daily News’ Rick Orlov reports the budget cuts are forcing the LA Fire Department to close its only hazardous materials unit in the San Fernando Valley, a 14-member team in Granada Hills ihat is one of only such teams in the city.
It will mean long delays in mobilizing skilled firefighters to deal with potentially life-threatening incidents but the mayor said it’s not a problem.
“We have promised to restore funding as soon as
possible,” mayor spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said. “And we are confident
the department will be able to handle any emergency that develops in the
city.”
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Ari Swiller, not the ticket scandal,is Antonio’s Achilles’ heel.
Speaking of pensions, you want to know a GREAT way to save a FORTUNE on pensions?
Prevent any and all two-term City Councilmen from getting a third term. As I recall — I’m not sure, but I think this is right — they have to work for the City for 10 years to qualify for a pension. So if you stop them from getting a third four-year term, you not only get rid of a terrible politician, but you avoid having to pay him a pension forever.
What’s not to like about that?
I heard a brief radio news item that if they can prove the Grim Sleeper was able-bodied enough to commit murders while collecting his disibility pension, they can stop all future payments.
Maybe they can sell that house of his, if he owns it, where he was arrested to get back some of the $300K.
Walter, sounds like a plan for more reasons than just pensions, but how would the 10-year limit affect councilmen like Zine and Parks who worked for the city for more that 20 years before becoming councilmen?
Hi Sandy-
I’m not positive, but I think if Zine and Parks get 10 years on Council, they get a significant increase on their existing pension.
Walter, do you know if that’s true?
If I remember correctly, there was pension reform talk around the time of Tom Bradley. He was used as an example of out of control city pensions were at that time. And again if I remember correctly, there were complaints about double- and tripple-dippers. He was used as an example of a triple-dipper: cop, councilman, mayor.
I really couldn’t say for sure, but I suspect they will receive TWO pensions: one through the police pension, and the other for civilian employees.
CIM Group definitly has a lock on the City Council with its sweetheart deals – HUD Section 108 Loans for the Kodak and Midtown Crossing projects. The Midtown crossing was the worst because taxes are being used to pay the $20 million back, therefore it is a gift from Wesson and his colleagues.
Despite the issue we had with David Nahai, former DWP General Manager, over Measure B and pay raises, the real reason Nahai was let go is because he refused to recommend the purchase of land for the Windmill project in Vernon AFTER it was made public in the paper. The Mayor still wanted to execute the deal with Ari Swiller, just like Garcetti want to move ahead on 1601 North Vine with Katersky despite the publicity about his honesty and credit worthiness.
Would claiming disability fraudulently disqualify one from receiving a pension? If so, why doesn’t the City give it a try? If the guy was “healthy” enough to go out and kill, he was probably healthy enough to collect garbage.
If not, perhaps the first step towards pension reform should be to disqualify convicted felons. Oh wait, that might be too close to home for some of our elected officials to even consider.
“”"D.A. Continues To Review Allegation That Councilman Bernard Parks Lived Outside His Distric”"”
How pathetic is it that the Weekly is breaking these type of stories!! Ron should start his own newspaper. One that doesn’t hide facts and does hard nose investigating. It would take away from both the LA Slimes and Daily News. The DN reported a story of Police Political League’s Eagle and Badge Foundation dinner. The mentioned Chief, AG, etc would be attending. What they failed to report is the Police Union’s main Honoree was the Failure of a Mayor. Let it be known the rank and file are pissed about this and DO NOT SUPPORT THEIR UNION HONORING THE FAILURE OF A MAYOR. Nor do they support their Union using their dues to support political candidates
Re: felons not collecting pensions – does the name O. J. Simpson ring a bell? He’s sitting in a jail in Nevada serving a term for felonious activities and I’ve not heard that his NFL pension got stopped – have you? Most pensions are untouchable – witness the protection it has against any claims from the Goldman family….
On a different note – a pension is earned for services rendered as an employee – it basically is deferred compensation. Other than dying, nothing that a person does after leaving an employer impacts his/her ability to collect the pension.
Disability pensions are a slightly different animal. The amount for a City employee to collect for disability is not based necessarily on his/her contribution, as the LACERS (Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System) program, but it also includes a factor based on earnings not realized because the employee was injured on the job. Tracking a disability claimant to the bowling alley to prove that they are not able to perform the tasks normally associated with their job classification is extremely expensive procedure. This individual receives $1638/month – that amounts to less than $10 per hour – how much would we taxpayers have to pay someone to follow this claimant 24 hours a day to prove that they are not indeed disabled, not to mention the cost of a court trial (and recovery of prior paid money is probably not viable – hey the guy ain’t living on a yacht on $1638/month!)….
Just send him a threatening letter, requiring that he submit to a physical exam every six months to prove that his disablity is ongoing…
He can take a physical while he’s in jail for the serial killings (assuming he’s not executed).
Come on – $1638/month is less than $20,000/year – one-fifth of what we taxpayers are paying for one of Mayor Villaraigosa’s breath-mint toters! Let’s focus our energies on getting cuts in that waste of taxpayer’s money. – PLEASE.
Just to confirm, in regards to:
“I’m not positive, but I think if Zine and Parks get 10 years on Council, they get a significant increase on their existing pension.”
Councilmen Zine and Parks will both receive two pensions. The one they currently draw on is with the Fire and Police Pension system and the second will be from the Los Angeles City Employee Retirement System (LACERS).
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